Gale’s City Market

The corner of Hennepin Ave. and 1st Street No., long remembered as the site of the Berman Buckskin building, was originally the site of  Harlow A. Gale’s City Market.  It was built in 1876 from designs by Minneapolis architect LeRoy Buffington. Gale had a business on the corner as early as 1857, but he did not own the site until 1873.  The City Market was located in the Bridge Square area of the City, between the Mississippi river and the junction of Hennepin and Nicollet Avenues where the bridge crossed the river into downtown Minneapolis.

 

In 1876, the City built a stone-towered suspension bridge to replace the original, and first, bridge across the Mississippi that was built of wood in 1854.  At the same time, the City awarded a municipal franchise to Gale to construct the City Market.  The building functioned as a City Market until its municipal franchise expired in 1891.  It remained vacant from 1982 until the fall of 1894 when it was demolished.

Edward A. Bromley wrote that the city market was:

 

one of the most picturesque buildings on the square,” for Gale “not only made the market famous as the gathering place of the farmers of the country but also inaugurated there, in the hall over the market a series of literary and musical entertainments.  (Minneapolis Journal, March 2, 1903)

 

Gale’s market was a multi-use facility which leased space for market stalls on the first floor and on the street around the building. In 1885 the building’s second floor contained a hall with stage and scenery. The central portion of the floor provided a seating area, including a gallery. On the southern portion of the building’s second floor, the Y.M.C.A. maintained its Bridge Square branch.